Springfield Ranked #5 in 2009

The federal government's preliminary passenger tally for 2009 is out. It's a 14 page document that shows 2009 enplanement numbers for each of the nation's 538 commercial airports. Enplanements are the number of people getting on an airplane. Example: if an airport had 1000 enplanements in 2009, that means it boarded 1000 passengers. The federal passenger tally shows that of the nation's 150 largest airports, we were ranked number 5 in passenger growth. Here are the top five passenger growth airports:

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, + 52.29%

Fargo International, + 7.68%

White Plains Airport, + 6.68%

St. Pete/Clearwater International, + 4.76%

Springfield-Branson National Airport. + 4.63%

These numbers are preliminary, but likely won't change much when finalized. It's really tempting to brag about this national ranking, but caution is the better part valor: so far this year our passenger numbers are flat. Take a look at the federal list. It has some really UGLY enplanements numbers for most airports. Here's a sample:

Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, - 3.38%

Detroit Wayne County, - 10.51%

Oakland International, - 17.39%

The negative list goes on and on...it shows in vivid detail the beating the aviation industry took last year. Only one of the nation's top ten airports had positive growth: San Francisco was up 1.77%

Take another look at the top five list. Know what four of those airports have in common? They have service from Allegiant Air (only White Plains doesn't). These numbers are a testament to Allegiant—it's one of the few airlines to grow and make money during the recession. In 2009 Allegiant grew it's Springfield passenger numbers by 41%.